Focus Set

Version 01.90.00
Added 17 Jul 2009 (last updated 12 Feb 2021)

For use with Sibelius 5, Sibelius 6, Sibelius 7.1, Sibelius 7.5, Sibelius 8.x, Sibelius 18.x, Sibelius 19.x, Sibelius 20.x, Sibelius 21.x, Sibelius 22.x, Sibelius 23.x and Sibelius 24.x

This is a set of plugins that let you create, save, and apply groups of staves [focus sets] that can be applied to a score to cause it to display those staves in View - Focus On Staves.

You can create custom groups of staves for specific scores. You need to set up the groups for each score you work on, but you can group any staves you want.

Use the plugin Focus Set to create, save, and apply your focus sets. Use Clone Focus Set if you have a number of scores with the same instrumentation. You can set up focus sets for one score, and use Clone Focus Sets to copy the settings into another score.

Focus Set 1, Focus Set 2, .. Focus Set 10, can be assigned to keystroke shortcuts. Focus Set 1 will apply the first focus set in the list of sets, Focus Set 2 runs the second [regardless of the names]. These plugins run with no dialogs.

It is recommended that these plugins be installed into a separate user Plugins subfolder [e.g., Focus Set]. A PDF help document is included in the zip file.

Updated 21 July 2009 to improve error handling.

Updated 4 September 2009. Clone Focus Set plugin was updated because it would fail with focus sets created by the July update. The plugins should now automatically stay in sync.

Updated 29 January 2011 to update PDF document.

Updated 9 August 2011 for Sib 7 font compatibility

Updated 26 October 2014 in put Clone Focus Set back in the zip file and update it to work in Sibelius 7.5.

Updated 25 January 2015. Set version number in Clone Focus Set to be the same as Focus Set and its children to avoid not picking up saved versions that used a different version number.

Updated 2 April 2019. Version 01.86.00. For Sibelius 7.1.3 and later, the Create or Edit Focus Sets dialog now allows you to multi-select [ctrl/cmnd-click] the big list box, which lets Delete Selected delete multiple staves. Also there is a new Add multiple staves... button that lets you add more than one staff at a time to the staves in a focus set.

Updated 4 October 2019. Updated version number of Clone Focus Set so it would work with the previously updated Focus Set plugin. Both now have version number 01.86.00, so Clone Focus Set should be able to run.

Updated 12 Feb 2021. Version 01.90.00.

Fixed Clone Focus Set to work in Sib 6. Did some layout work on several dialogs to avoid truncation in Sib 6.You should install at least Focus Set and Clone Focus Set.

Plug-in written by Bob Zawalich.

Focus Families

Version 01.10.00
Added 17 Jul 2009 (last updated 16 Jun 2015)

For use with Sibelius 5, Sibelius 6, Sibelius 7.1, Sibelius 7.5, Sibelius 8.x, Sibelius 18.x, Sibelius 19.x, Sibelius 20.x, Sibelius 21.x, Sibelius 22.x, Sibelius 23.x and Sibelius 24.x

The Focus Families plugins let you display, in Focus On Staves, instruments contained in one or more families of instruments. The families are predefined by Sibelius and are: "Brass", "Exotic", "Fretted", "Keyboard", "Other", "Pitched Percussion", "Singers", "Strings", "Unpitched", and "Wind".

Use Focus Families (and its 2 clones, Focus Families 1 and Focus Families 2) to display multiple instrument families. These plugins bring up a dialog, at least the first time run in a session, and save their settings across Sibelius sessions.

There is also a set of plugins that will display one family of instruments. These have no dialog, and are meant to be assigned to shortcut keys. They are Focus Brass, Focus Exotic, Focus Fretted, Focus Keyboard, Focus Other, Focus Pitched Percussion, Focus Singers, Focus Strings, Focus Unpitched, and Focus Wind.

All instruments are in one family only. So for example, though you can find a Harp in Create > Instruments in both the Strings and Pitched Percussion families, the plugin will always place a harp in Pitched Percussion.

While these plugins are less customizable than the Focus Set plugins, they do not require setup for each score, and so can be mixed and matched with the Focus Set plugins.

It is recommended that these plugins be installed into a separate user Plugins subfolder (e.g., Focus Families). A PDF help document is included in the zip file.

Updated 23 June 2010. Focus Families/2/3 were not restoring their saved settings, and this in fixed.

Updated 29 January 2011. Added Focus Families 4..9, and added an option to put harps in either the Strings or Pitched Percussion families. the PDF document was also updated.

Updated 29 August 2012 to restore the missing single family plugins, such as Focus Brass.

Updated 5 September 2012 to fix settings for including Harps in string and pitched percussion.

Updated 16 June 2015 to make the Focus Families plugins remember the settings for Wind instruments

Plug-in written by Bob Zawalich.